History

The Lewis and Clark Expedition
spent the winter of 1805-1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure south
and west of modern day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship
would come by to take them back east, but instead endured a
torturous winter of rain and cold, then returned east the way they
came. Today the fort has been recreated and is now a national monument.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company sent the Astor
Expedition that founded Fort Astoria as its primary fur-trading
post in the Northwest, and in fact the first permanent U.S.
settlement on the Pacific coast. It was an extremely important post
for American exploration of the continent and was influential in
establishing American claims to the land.

British explorer David Thompson was the first
European to navigate the entire length of the Columbia River in
1811. Thompson reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria at
the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after the Pacific
Fur Company's ship, the Tonquin.[6]

The Pacific Fur Company failed, however, and the fort and fur
trade were sold to the British in 1813. The house was restored to
the U.S. in 1818, though the fur trade would remain under British
control until American pioneers following the Oregon Trail began
filtering into the port town in the mid-1840s. The Treaty of 1818
established joint U.S. - British occupancy of territory west of the
continental divide to the Pacific
Ocean. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty ended the Oregon Boundary Dispute; with Britain
ceding all right to the mainland south of the 49th
parallel north.

Washington Irving, a prominent
American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John
Jacob Astor to mythologize the three-year reign of his Pacific Fur
Company. Astoria (1835), written while Irving was Astor's
guest, cemented the importance of the region in the American
psyche.[7] In
Irving's words, the fur traders were "Sinbads of the wilderness,"
and their venture was a staging point for the spread of American
economic power into both the continental interior and into the
Pacific.

As the Oregon Territory grew and became
increasingly more settled, Astoria likewise grew as a port city at the mouth of the great
river that provided the easiest access to the interior. The first
U.S. Post Office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in
Astoria in 1847. In 1876, the community was incorporated by the
state.

Astoria attracted a host of immigrants beginning in the
late-nineteenth century: Scandinavian settlers, primarily
Finns, and Chinese soon became significant parts of the population.
The Finns mostly lived in Uniontown, near the present-day end of
the Astoria-Megler Bridge, and took fishing jobs; the Chinese
tended to do cannery work, and usually lived either downtown or in
bunkhouses near the canneries. In 1883, and again in 1922, downtown
Astoria was devastated by fire, partly because it was mostly wood
and entirely raised off the marshy ground on pilings. Even after
the first fire, the same format was used, and the second time
around the flames spread quickly again, as collapsing streets took
out the water system. Frantic citizens resorted to dynamite,
blowing up entire buildings to stop the fire from going
further.

Astoria has served as a port of entry for over a century and
remains the trading center for the lower Columbia basin, although
it has long since been eclipsed by Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington as an
economic hub on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Astoria's economy
centered around fishing, fish processing, and lumber. In 1945,
about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia; however, in
1974 Bumblebee Seafood moved its
headquarters out of Astoria, and gradually reduced its presence
until 1980 when the company closed its last Astoria cannery. The timber industry likewise declined; Astoria
Plywood Mill, the city's largest employer, closed in 1989, and the
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway
discontinued service in 1996.

Today, tourism, Astoria's growing art scene, and light
manufacturing are the main economic activities of the city. It is a
port of call for cruise
ships since 1982, after $10 million in pier improvements to
accommodate cruise ships. To avoid Mexican ports of call during the
Swine Flu
outbreak of 2009, many cruises were re-routed to include
Astoria. The residential community The World visited
Astoria in June 2009.

In addition to the replicated Fort Clatsop, a popular point of
interest is the Astoria Column, a tower 125 feet
(38 m) high built atop the hill above the town, with an inner
circular staircase allowing visitors to climb to see a panoramic
view of the town, the surrounding lands, and the Columbia flowing
into the Pacific. The column was built by the Astor family in 1926
to commemorate the region's early history.

Since 1998, artistically-inclined fishermen and women from
Alaska and the Pacific Northwest have traveled to Astoria for the
Fisher Poets Gathering, where
poets and singers tell their tales to honor the fishing industry
and lifestyle.

Astoria is also the western terminus of the TransAmerica Trail,
a bicycle
touring route created by the American Cycling Association.

Geography
and climate

According to the United States Census
Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.6 square miles
(27.5 km²), of which, 6.1 square miles (15.9 km²) of
it is land and 4.5 square miles (11.6 km²) of it (42.18%)
is water.

Climate

Astoria lies within the Marine west
coast climate zone, with very mild temperatures year-round,
some of the most consistent in the continental United States; normal winters
are mild for Astoria's latitude, generally above freezing, and wet.
Summers are cool, although short heat waves can occur. Rainfall is
most abundant in late fall and winter, and lightest in late summer.
Snowfall is relatively rare but does accumulate in small amounts in
winter.

As of the census[1] of
2000, there were 9,813 people, 4,235 households, and 2,469 families
residing in the city. The population density was 1,597.6
people per square mile (617.1 per km²). There were 4,858 housing
units at an average density of 790.9 per square mile (305.5 per
km²). The racial makeup of the city was:

There were 4,235 households out of which 28.8% had children
under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples living
together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present,
and 41.7% were non-families. 35.4% of all households were made up
of individuals and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years
of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the
average family size was 2.93.

In the city the population was spread out with:

24.0% under the age of 18

9.1% from 18 to 24

26.4% from 25 to 44

24.5% from 45 to 64

15.9% 65 years of age or older.

The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were
92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.9
males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,011, and
the median income for a family was $41,446. Males had a median
income of $29,813 versus $22,121 for females. The per capita
income for the city was $18,759. About 11.6% of families and
15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.0% of those
under age 18 and 9.6% of those age 65 or over.

Astoria is also mentioned in the movie Eight Below; it is
the current hometown of character Jerry Shepherd. Most recently it
is mentioned in the movie about the Coast Guard "The Guardian" with
Kevin Costner.

The monster movie It Came from Beneath the
Sea (1955) has a reference to Astoria. The Navy tracks the
beast (a giant Octopus), first to Astoria, where it attacks people
on shore, leaving sucker imprints in the sand.

Further
reading

MacGibbon, Elma (1904). Leaves of knowledge.
Shaw & Borden Co. Elma MacGibbons
reminiscences about her travels in the United States starting in
1898, which were mainly in Oregon and Washington. Includes chapter
"Astoria and the Columbia River."

^
In his Introduction to the rambling work, Irving reports that Astor
explicitly "expressed a regret that the true nature and extent of
his enterprizeand its national character and importance had never
been understood."

^
Moffatt, Riley. Population History of Western U.S. Cities &
Towns, 1850-1990. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1996, 206.

Astoria is a city in the Americanstate of Oregon . It is named after John Jacob Astor, who started a fur trading post, there in 1811. Many movies have been filmed there like The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, and Free Willy.